William Slater (born 18 June 1983) is an Australian professional rugby league footballer for the Melbourne Storm in the National Rugby League (NRL). An Australian international and one-time captain of the Queensland State of Origin, he has played his whole NRL career to date at Melbourne, with whom he set the club record for most ever tries and NRL record for most ever tries by a fullback. Slater has amassed 188 NRL tries during his career which is currently 2nd most of all time, behind Ken Irvine. Slater has also won two grand finals, the Clive Churchill Medal and the Dally M Medal with the Storm. With the Kangaroos he was the 2008 World Cup's top try-scorer and player of the tournament and won the 2008 Golden Boot Award as the World player of the year. Slater was also the winner of the television game show Australia's Greatest Athlete in 2009 and 2010.
Slater was born in Nambour, Queensland, Australia on 18 June 1983. He began playing rugby league football for the Brothers club in Innisfail, Queensland. A North Queensland Cowboys fan growing up, he continued to make the Innisfail representative side every season until his final year with the club. At sixteen years of age, Slater left school at Innisfail State High School and decided to follow his personal passion for thoroughbred racing, working initially in Sydney for 6 months as a roustabout for the racehorse trainer Gai Waterhouse.